Hey,

Anybody been to Whitetail this week?

Just got off the phone with a buddy who was at RT last night (Weds eve). His advice: "STAY HOME!" Some pretty awful 'grooming' is happening there, big bare mud spots on Upper Ramrod, entrance to Susque, the Leap and some big patches on Minute Man. I imagine they covered up overnight, but there's bound to be thin spots and rocks drug around & floating about. The mountain has more of a brownish tinge than white at the moment.

Anyone know how WT is holding up? I'd rather make the extra drive than ski around mud...

wow!! i think it wont be good anywhere local until saturday.

Upper Ramrod had bare spots towards the end of the day on Saturday.

I was at Whitetail last Sunday. Coverage was excellent with the exception of Exhibition under the chair lift (snow never, ever stays long there.) Rest of the trail was fine, with some great bumps. As fins said, with this thaw-freeze we've had this week, I'd imagine the surface will be quite firm until they blow snow on it.

Any more recent updates?

I'm hitting RT tonight. im anticipating completely bombproff but i'll post a reprot tomorrow.

tomimcmillar,
I was there yesterday from open to about 11:30. As usual, I headed straight for the back side runs and they were crap. Actually, Exhibition was okay but I don't think Farside or Bold Decision had been groom. It was crusty, hard and yellow. Don't know what's up with the color but it didn't add anything in the way of pleasurable skiing. The front side runs were all pretty decent. Snowdancer and Upper Angel Drop to Homerun were the best of the bunch. There's not a heck of a lot of bare spots. For the first two hours it seemed like a dozen or so people and all of the instructors were the only ones out on the hill. All told, it wasn't that great but it beat sitting at a desk.

I'm not sure about Whitetail, but the slope conditions are really bad at Blue Knob right now. As of Tuesday, BK was reporting that 24 trails were open including 4 of their gladed trails. As of today, I believe that BK is reporting that only 15 trails are open. I went up to BK for a look-see yesterday and was shocked at how little snow there was. There was no natural snow in the woods and, from what I could tell, some of their main slopes were covered with major bare spots. For example, near the top of Expressway, where it branches off Jack Rabbit, there was a huge bare spot that extended across the entire width of Expressway. Also, Stembogan was covered with so many huge bare spots that it looked like it would be impossible to ski down that run without hitting a NON-snow surface from time to time. (Hopefully, they're making snow at BK right now.) Anyway, I would presume that the current conditions at Whitetail are considerably better than the conditions that I've described at BK.

Scot,

well, good to know no nasty bare spots at WT.

Sounds like the groomers at RT have been dropping the blade a bit too soon as they roll over the tops of these slopes. Thinning out the cover and bottoming out, then I guess they try to cover it up, which lasts for maybe a day. Been told that the entrance to Ramrod was down to two ~5 foot strips on the sides, middle was gnarly stuff you didn't want to ski over.

Looks like I'm headed down to WT, a few runs thru the bumps on Ex should be just what I need...

peace.

So much for the bare spots. I was up there tonight. There were several places that were starting to show through (e.g. stalker, lower limelight, home run). Fortunately they started the guns about 6:15PM so things should be fine by this weekend. Exhibition was groomed and leveled out this week (but no coverage under the lift except at the very top). The bumps were pretty flat tonight, but I had my best runs over there. Conditions over all were "extra firm". Snowpark was almost in "shiny" condition (you could only see 1/4 inch into the surface). Although some of the courderoy remained untouched from the morning, it was no longer accepting ski tracks. Most people coming down Snowpark were quite loud. Snow Dancer was forming death cookies. Angel Drop and Exhibition held up well. If you know how to ski firm snow, these were great runs tonight. Guest services was handing out a lot of snow guarantee refunds.

The good news is that the 1/2 pipe was cut again this week. Although the walls still aren't straight (along the length of the pipe), there are enough places where it's vertical to make it worthwhile. You could tell the walls were getting chewed up pretty quickly in the warm temps though.

yeah Rusty,

It was definitely 'loud' skiing last night.
I got started right about 6, stayed til 8 when I had enough. Wasn't impressed much with the 'bumps' on Ex, small and ill defined. Bold was ok-ish, but really cut and rutted up from early in the day when things were softer. Bold also showed some well marked bare spots way over on skier's right. Limelight started to feel better right under the guns, but was pretty unpredictable. Conditions were pretty much what I expected, an edgeable hardpack bordering on true ice (hadn't quite locked up yet, just warm enough) with lots of odd piles of chipped ice schluff to blast thru. Had hoped the bumps woulda been better, just not much there to hold my interest last night. Wasn't really in the mood to ski Mach 5 GS style carves all night which is prob the best thing to do in those conditions.

With the guns coming online quick, they should have it pimped for the wknd.

T